The will is the way
by InsertWeabooNameHere
Summary: What if there was a prophecy.. And due to this Naruto must be neglected for the good of the village. But the will is the way.
1. Chapter 1

"It's the Ninetails!" Yelled a terrified citizen as a gigantic orange fox appeared in the middle of the normally peaceful leaf village.

The creature roared with such force that every window in the village shattered instantly. It's blood red eyes showed sharingan irises but only a few cared at that moment as the creature backhanded a building, completely obliterating it and killing all those inside.

Ninja began to fight the creature but it shrugged off normal ninjutsu like it was nothing.

The Fourth Hokage appeared in the village, his Haori blowing in the wind and his face set. "I won't let you destroy my home, Kyuubi..."

The creature paused to look at the fourth, building chakra to its mouth.

The fourth looked to his left as his predecessor landed beside him. "Minato, can you handle this?"

"No problem, Hiruzen. I'll need you to do something though." Minato pulled a tri-pronged Kuna and aimed it and his palms at the Kyuubi. "The beast can't be killed, only sealed. Bring one of my children here."

"Kushina would kill me if I did that Minato-kun..." Hiruzen looked at the dark ball of chakra over the Kyuubi's head and breathed out shakily. "Then again it's not like the village could take being hit by that..."

Minato grinned as he whispered. "Hiraishin." The giant orb of chakra vanished and the ground beneath them trembled lightly.

"Where did you send that?"Hiruzen asked, awed by the power of Minato's jutsu.

Minato grinned, having spent a good portion of chakra. "Iwa?"

The look of horrified shock made Minato laugh. "I'm just joking old man, relax. I sent it about fifty miles into the forest. I wouldn't do something like that."

"Terrible time for jokes, kid." Another figure landed on Minato's other side.

"Jiraiya-sensei. I'm glad you're here."

"Pfft...I'm not." Jiraiya scoffed, pushing his white hair from his eyes.

Hiruzen turned. "I'll go...but I want you to promise me something, Minato..."

"Anything." Minato crouched ready to charge the fox.

Hiruzen smiled. "Live. I want you to be Hokage for a bit longer than tonight."

"But it's the Hokage's duty to-"

"No buts!" Minato looked down, like a child scolded. "Minato-kun, you have the makings to be one of the greatest Shinobi to have ever lived, but you can't do that if you die just before you reach your prime. Besides...my wife died many years ago. It's time I joined her." Hiruzen vanished with the shunshin as Minato wiped the tears from his eyes and prepared a large rasengan.

"Jiraia-sensei, summon Gamabunta..."

Minato sighed. It'd been nearly five years since the Kyuubi attack.

Minato and Jiraiya pushed the fox out of the village and when Hiruzen arrived, The third hokage used a powerful sealing jutsu to seal the great fox. The jutsu cost his life...

Kushina was in a coma from the stress of being separated from the ninetails.

Now Minato was stuck with three children, one of which containing nearly limitless chakra. "Kushi-chan, I wish you'd wake up..."

Jiraiya walked into the small hospital room, a grim expression on his face. "Kid we need to talk."

"About what, Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato looked at him, his tears long fried up.

Jiraiya almost told him to forget it when he saw the pitiful state of his favored pupil, but he steeled his nerves. "The Great Toad gave me a prophecy. He said that the Child of my student with the strongest will and most power will become the only hope of this world. If he fails, everything and everyone...will die. There's a problem though."

Minato nodded. "I'll start training the boys harder. "

"No. Listen. It said the one with the strongest will. We need to make sure it ends up being Karah, with the nine tails, she will have the highest possibility of beating any threat. Naruto and Naomi are basically normal, though with Naomi's quiet nature I doubt she could take the spot from Karah. Naruto though, is spirited, energetic. He could end up being the one and without a bloodline or being a jinchuriki he lacks the assets of his sister, and would most likely fail."

"Are you saying to ignore my son? My only fuckin son?!" Minato stood angrily before casting a glance at his wife and calming down.

Jiraiya sighed. "It's not so easy. His spirit is too strong, as the hokage you have to make sure his spirit is weaker than Karah's, to protect the people you need to do this."

"H-How do you know this is true? Has a prophecy ever been wrong?"

"These prophecies...are never wrong and they never change. I'm sorry kid, it's the only way..." Jiraiya looked down sadly.

"Fine..." Minato looked at Kushina as tear drops escaped his eyes. "I'll make Karah the strongest in existence."

"Brother, how are you doing that?!" A small blonde girl with dark blue eyes stared up as a small blonde boy with identical features stood on the ceiling, with a soft blue glow at his feet.

The boy smiled. "I dunno!"

A red haired girl pressed her foot on the wall to walk up but slid back down. "How Naruto!"

The boy, now known as Naruto, laughed as his shirt fell over his face.

"I'm gonna be Hokage, like daddy!" Naruto giggled loudly.

The blonde girl threw a shoe at him. "Not if I get there first!"


	2. Chapter 2

Minato had his three children in front of him. "I'm going to start training Karah and Naomi today. Naruto, with your exceptional skill you don't need a sensei." Minato's heart dropped at the smile on his son's face.

"That's right, I'm totally awesome! But I would still like to learn from you daddy..." Naruto asked.

"I'm sorry, son, but I can't focus on all of you at once. I need to do it two at a time." Minato bit the inside of his cheek.

Naruto looked down. "Alright... but you'll teach me something later, right?"

Minato nodded, unable to speak the words knowing it was a lie.

_three years later_

"Daddy...please... I..." Naruto was on his knees, begging his father to help him train...or even acknowledge him...

"Not today son." Minato didn't miss a beat, signing away on his papers.

His heart has hardened over the three years of following Jiraiya's advice.

Naruto punched the ground. "Not today son! Not today son! Not today son! That's all I ever hear from you! You never even talk to me! I bet you'd forget my birthday if it wasn't the same day as your precious Karah!"

"Naruto. This is the Hokage's office, a place of rich history. You'll never reach being Hokage acting the way you are now." Minato looked up for a second, then continued working.

Naruto stood quickly. "You think I'd want to be anything like you!?" Naruto turned and ran from the room, catching the eyes of a certain young Black Eyed boy a couple years older.

Naruto ended up running to the training ground at the academy and sitting behind a shuriken target. He buried his face into his arms and cried.

"You're Sasuke's age. Why are you crying?"

Naruto looked up to find a boy in gray armor with black hair and eyes a few years older than himself. Naruto wiped his eyes furiously. "I-I'm not!"

"Yes you are. Nothings wrong with it, I often cry at my memories." The boy sat by Naruto. "I'm Itachi Uchiha, by the way."

"Naruto Namikaze..." Naruto noticed the headband on the boy's right arm. "You're a ninja."

"A jounin actually. Now, do you want to tell me why you're upset?" Itachi asked curiously.

Naruto sighed a told Itachi how his mother was in a coma and his father ignoring him at every turn in favor his sisters.

Itachi contemplated for a moment. "You and my brother seem to be kindred spirits. I was thinking of training my younger brother because father ignores him to try and focus on me, but he would benefit greatly from learning with someone of similar skill level. I could teach you and you can show your father that you're just as strong as your sisters."

Naruto's eyes went downcast. "I can't. Karah has the power of the nine tails and Naomi can use the adamantine chains...I don't have those powers..."

"Calling on the power of the fox won't make her strong, in fact, it could become a handicap should she ever lose access to its power. Same with the bloodline. Against someone like me, your sisters would be powerless because the sharingan can control bijuu and the chains are a burden unless used correctly. My sharingan isn't infallible either, it just makes attacks from up front harder to actually land."

Itachi stood. "If I teach you, you'll need to hide what you know. I'm guessing your father has a reason for doing this and that would mean I'm going against the Hokage to train you. What I teach you will help your ninja career for the rest of your life."

Naruto nodded. "Alright... Itachi-sensei, when do we start?"

"Right now. I need to evaluate your skills. Can you do the tree walking and water walking exercises?"

Naruto nodded. "Kakashi said I have excellent control for my age and chakra levels."

Itachi handed him a small yellow paper. "Then we start the next step. Put chakra into that."

Naruto did so and watched in amazement as it split in half.

"Wind type. I'm able to use some wind techniques though I'm primarily a fire user. Pick up a leaf and cut it in half with your chakra. Once you've done that we'll move on."

Naruto glared at the offending leaf between his fingers. "Why won't it cut?"

"You're trying to make a knife with your chakra. That's not how the wind works. You need to create two currents that rub against each other and get slimmer and sharper." Itachi picked up a handful of leaves, then closed his eyes. "You'll have mastered this step when you can do this." The leaves all split in half perfectly and were blown into the air with a burst of wind.

Naruto looked on in shock and awe. Then turned to his small leaf with renewed vigor.

"Big brother! You said you wouldn't train me today and come to train this kid?!" A smaller boy who looked like Itachi but Naruto's age.

He ran up to Itachi, only to be flicked in the forehead.

"Sorry Sasuke. I was going to start your training with this boy tomorrow, but since you're here. It's time we worked on your chakra control. Walk up that tree by applying chakra to your feet. To much you hurl yourself off, too little and you slip off." Itachi pointed to a tree. "Once you are done with that I'll help you with water walking."

Naruto breathed out quickly as the leaf began to split. "Look Itachi-sensei!"

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "That's impressive. For you to actually be able to cut it, if only slightly, is astounding."

Naruto smiled and got back to work.

_One year later_

"Sasuke. You think we should learn to use a weapon?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded. "Kunai won't cut it at close range. We need an extra edge."

Sasuke had on a black long sleeved shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back, white pants, and black Shinobi sandals. He had a pouch on his left side filled with kunai and pouch on his right thigh with shuriken, ninja wire, and a few survival tools.

Naruto had a blue long sleeved shirt, black metal arm guards, gray pants, and black boots with a gray stripe. He kept his kunai and shuriken in a pouch.

Currently, they were engaged in a taijutsu spar.

Naruto sidestepped an overextended punch and threw an elbow. Sasuke deflected the elbow and tried to grab Naruto's arm, only for Naruto to bring his legs up to his chest and use both feet to kick Sasuke in the chest and send him sprawling.

Sasuke rolled to his feet and grinned.

Then, with speed greater than most genie could track, he flicked three shurikens at Naruto.

The blonde cursed and used his right arm guard to shield himself. His heart was racing, adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Sasuke felt similarly, but different. His eyes suddenly became red with a single tomoe in his left eye and two in his right eye. Sasuke sprinted forward, overwhelming Naruto with his heightened reflexes.

With a solid punch to the cheek, Naruto fell onto his back. "Owwww...I think your sharingan awakened..."

"Oh...okay good. I thought you just started going slower for some reason..."

"You know... tomorrow we start the academy and won't come out here much." Naruto whispered from his back.

Sasuke sat down across from his friend. "I know. Are you really gonna hold back and not show anything?"

"Yes." Naruto closed his eyes. "For two reasons. Only one team is predetermined. The number one rookie, the top kunoichi, and the dead last. I'm going to fail everything except what I have to have to pass. While you become rookie of the year. Second... I don't want my father knowing how strong I've gotten. I can't think of a logical reason he'd ignore me over my sisters but it can't be good. He isn't much of a father anyway, he doesn't deserve to be proud of my accomplishments. I got this strong because of you and Itachi-nii."

"This'll probably backfire on you when he sees what you can really do."

"Eh, maybe...but at this point, I honestly don't care." Naruto sat up. "I need to get stronger to keep up with that sharingan of yours."


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto groaned as Iruka explained for the sixth time the proper way to throw the kunai to Naruto, who hasn't hit the target yet because he's trying to fail.

"I knew he was an idiot..."

Naruto's ear twitched at the sound of his sister's voice. He cast a glare at her and then smirked.

Without looking he pulled a single kunai and flicked it towards the target dummy. The kunai buried itself up to the handle into the dummy's skull, making Iruka stop and stare.

"H-How?" Iruka asked, a minute ago Naruto was struggling to come close to the target...now he looked like a master.

Naruto shrugged, still smirking at his sister. "Beginners luck?"

Iruka sighed. "Whatever... if you want to hold back I won't stop you, Kami knows the Naras do it."

Sasuke stepped up, it being his turn."Do I have to throw them one at a time?"

"Well...there's no rul-"

Sasuke grinned and grabbed a handful of kunai blades and hurled them. Two hit it's neck, one in each eye, and one in the center of its forehead. 2

Iruka was flabbergasted. "P-perfect score..."

Sasuke smirked at Naruto. "How's that?"

"Eh, mine went deeper." Indeed it had. Sasuke's went halfway up the blade and Naruto's was all 5he way up to the hilt.

"You might be physically stronger than me but I'll kick your ass, dobe." Sasuke mentally chuckled as Naruto bit his cheek to stop from saying something along the lines of them being nearly evenly matched.

_Graduation Test_

Naruto was grinning ear to ear, walking happily. He was now twelve years old and still had not chosen a weapon, like he and Sasuke had planned. Instead, he'd been relying on his naturally high stamina and physical strength.

Sasuke had an elongated tanto, similar to the one his brother carried.

Karah was third to walk into the classroom. She had blue pants, dark blue shoes, a blue long sleeved shirt, and a white Haori similar to her father's but with a Kanji for nine on the back.

She flicked her gaze to Naruto and rolled her eyes.

"Today your parents are coming in and since this test doesn't affect your grades...hold nothing back." Sasuke whispered.

Naruto scoffed. "I'll show most but I'm hiding most of my wind release jutsu... I think I'll show my taijutsu though."

Sasuke nodded. "Fair enough. I'm hiding my lightning release."

"Naruto. You'd better not fail. You're already an embarrassment to father." Karah was standing in front of the pair now, arms crossed.

Naruto twitched slightly, his anger beginning to boil at the mention of his 'father'. "Whatever Karah. You'll see what I can do later, for now...kindly fuck off."

Karah grabbed her brother's shirt and went to lift him up but he swatted her hand away.

Then Iruka walked in, seeing the two tensed preteens. "Everything alright in here?"

"Yeah. Karah was just about to go sit down, isn't that right Karah?" Sasuke asked, trying to diffuse the situation.

Karah glared at Sasuke then at Naruto. "You're lucky the Uchiha has your back, Naruto."

Naruto scoffed. "We'll see."

_half an hour later_

"Alright class. We've got three tests today. Written, ninjutsu, and taijutsu." Iruka had his hands clasped behind his back.

Naruto perked up. "What about dispelling genjutsu? That's a very important skill to have."

"I agree, but it's also an advanced skill that takes years to learn. I doubt any academy student can do it." Iruka chuckled.

Naruto, Sasuke, Karah, Hinata, and Shikamaru all raised their hands. "We can dispel genjutsu..."

Iruka nodded. "If you're telling the truth that's fairly impressive. Anyway in a minute I'll pass out your written test. The written portion of your test isn't as important as the skill display portions but bombing it can fail you."

Naruto shrugged lightly, Itachi is an excellent teacher..

Naruto sighed as he finished his test. The kunai/shuriken throwing theories were harder but he threw by instinct anyway so it didn't much matter. He knew the other answers. The bonus question at the end he probably got wrong.

It said 'If you had a choice between saving your teammates or completing your mission, what will you choose?' He probably got it wrong but Naruto wrote that he would always choose his teammates over the mission.

"Alright, class. Next is the Taijutsu test. You will face me for two minutes while I evaluate your skills, you'll be graded based on your overall performance instead of how long you last. First up Akari Akado." It was just over half an hour later when Iruka called out. "Karah Namikaze."

Naruto watched her intently, trying to figure out what all she'd learned.

She walked with quiet confidence over to Iruka. She put her left foot back and bent her knee slightly, keeping her hands loose but her left hand up higher.

"Humming bird style, the style your father made famous. He taught it to you?" Iruka asked, clearly impressed.

In response she smirked.

Iruka chuckled. "Fine, begin."

No sooner than the words left his mouth did Karah spin and throw a vicious back kick, which Iruka deflected with his palm.

Karah struck out at Iruka with her left hand, aiming at a nerve cluster in his armpit. Iruka caught her wrist and immediately had to let go as she tried to kick him between the legs.

"To know the stance, you're very sloppy." Iruka commented.

The humming bird style required you to move in slow erratic movements and speed up to attack, throwing your opponent off guard. Karah was moving at her full speed, which was impressive for a genin but she was allowing her opponent to grow accustomed to her speed.

She continued her sporadic attacks until the buzzer sounded, though she didn't look winded in the slightest, a side effect of containing a creature with nearly limitless chakra and stamina.

"Naruto Namikaze. Come on." Iruka called.

Sasuke stepped towards Naruto. "Try to not hold back, remember? I want everyone to know how powerful we are."

Naruto nodded. "You too, sucks that you're last though. We could be training while our classmates finished."

To that, Sasuke simply shrugged.

"Alright Naruto. Begin when you're ready." Iruka's smile vanished when Naruto opened his shirt, revealing a set of black markings in the shape of a triangle on his chest. "Are those improvement seals, Naruto?"

"No, more like restriction seals. They release gravitons which works to increase my weight. I've got them at about four times normal gravity. I got them from a friend." He held up two fingers and the seals shrunk to the size of a coin. "Wow... I never get used to the feeling of not being heavier. I release them on Wednesdays and Sundays so I know what my body is capable of and to allow my muscles to heal. Alright sensei, I hope you're ready"

Iruka nodded, and was almost caught off guard when Naruto was in front of him throwing a leaping superman punch. On instinct, Iruka caught the punch...or tried to.

Naruto's punch impacted Iruka's hand and instead of stopping, it kept going. Iruka stumbled back, cradling his hand. "I think you broke my-"

Naruto was in front of him again, throwing a powerful knee at Iruka's chest, only for Iruka to dodge, having learned his lesson.

Naruto used the momentum to flip and bring his foot down in a massive ax kick, knocking a hole and cracks into the ground.

Iruka went to throw a punch but Naruto slapped a handful of dirt into his teacher's face and tried to tackle the blinded Chunin.

Naruto caught a vicious backhand and fell to the side, unable to concentrate fully.

"Times up." Iruka said between breaths. "I've gotta give it to you Naruto, your physical strength is incredible..." He tried flexing his hand, only to wince in pain. "Yep, definitely broken..."

Naruto chuckled, rubbing his cheek. "You got a mean backhand."

"In terms of pure taijutsu, you're about Chunin level but your physical strength puts you a bit much can you lift?" Iruka asked curiously.

"Without restrictions, I can bench around seven hundred pounds." Naruto allowed the restrictions seal to grow to its normal size.

Iruka chuckled. "Twelve years old with that kinda strength? Keep that up and you'll be incredible when you're an adult."


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke stood in front of Iruka, copying his brother's emotionless mask perfectly. Added with his sharingan he'd probably look intimidating, if he weren't twelve.

Iruka had his hand in a cast and was standing with his body in front of the injured appendage. "Alright, Sasuke. Begin."

Sasuke walked forward slowly, methodically placing one foot in front of the other until he stood directly in front of Iruka.

"Are you even trying, Sasuke?" Iruka asked.

Sasuke glared. "I won't fight you as hard as I can. You're injured and running low on chakra. I'm better than the dobe at taijutsu, you'd only get hurt."

Iruka's eye twitched and he threw a punch with his good hand.

Sasuke sidestepped the punch and slipped his arm around Iruka's neck. The hold was good but if Iruka had both arms or his chakra he could've broken it. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, you can't do this right now. Just be glad I was last and aren't trying to hurt you."

Iruka struggled. "You think you're-"

"No. I don't. You're a chunin, you obviously outclass an Academy student." Sasuke leaned close. "But I was trained by someone who was stronger than most jonin by the time he was twelve. You know my brother, the Crow of Konoha..."

Naruto hid a smirk as Iruka whispered back. "The way you move, it's similar to Naruto. Did Itachi train him as well?"

Sasuke released him. "Maybe, but we can't show our full strength.

"Alright everyone. Next, is the ninjutsu portion. Everyone will perform substitution, clone jutsu, and henge. Extra points may be earned by demonstrating another jutsu. Karah Namikaze, I've been informed by your father that you are exempt from the clone portion because your reserves are too high to do such a small jutsu." Iruka explained.

Naruto scoffed. She had that much chakra because she was a jinchuriki, a jailer. Naruto understood the need to cage the tailed beast but stealing it's power didn't sit right with the boy.

Everyone performed their jutsu with no failures and only four people wanted to demonstrate an extra jutsu.

"Alright Karah, you can go first." Iruka told her.

Karah nodded and stepped up and did transformation and substitution. Then held up her hands and smiled. Blue chakra began gathering between her palms and spinning wildly. After a few moments, she had a wobbly looking ball of pure spinning chakra. "Rasengan. My Daddy's famous jutsu."

She let it dispel and stepped back looking proud of her display.

Naruto stepped up and performed all three jutsu without any hand signs. He went to step back in line, going to skip the extra credit when he heard his sister snort. "Figures Naruto doesn't know any ninjutsu..."

Naruto stopped, narrowed his eyes and did two hand signs, then aimed a hand. The air in front of his palm compressed until it made the air look a bit lighter in color. Then he whispered. "Wind Bullet!" The air balloon blasted forward at incredible speeds and blasted through the open window and blew the bark off the side of a tree it hit.

Papers flew around the room as people looked at Naruto in astonishment.

Naruto smirked at his handiwork, had he spent a few more seconds building air pressure he could've vaporized a good portion of the tree and uprooted it.

No one saw the spectator outside, wielding an invisibility jutsu made infamous by a famous pervert. The spectator glared at Karah. "You have to be stronger..."

Naruto twitched, the familiar Ping of a chakra signature getting close to him. Not seeing anyone he shrugged but kept up his guard.

_a week later (bc I'm lazy af)_

Naruto jumped up from his bed to find an elderly man in his room. The man had horns on his head, dark purple ripple patterned eyes, long mangy red hair, and he wore white robes. But none of that explained why he was floating atop a staff that was made of a black metal substance.

Naruto took a fighting stance. "Who in the hell are you?"

"I am known by many names. God of Shinobi, Slayer of the Ten tails, Master of-"

"Being humble? Tell me your name and why you're in my room or if you will hurt me." Naruto told the elderly man.

The elder glared, the air around him shifting slightly. An air of unimaginable power filled Naruto's senses. "You would do to show respect boy. I am the most powerful being on this planet and I have taken an interest in you."

Naruto tried to move, but found his limbs totally immobilized. "-the hell?"

The man dropped to the ground lightly. "I will have one more to do tonight so don't make this difficult. The gift I have for you is a power for you to fight the Dark One with. Something happened to this time line and you did not recieve the powers you were supposed to. So I'm giving you a power just as strong..."

"If I fail to use it right?" Naruto asked.

The man paused momentarily. "I won't force you to use it the right way...but if you do the earth will perish."

Naruto's mouth opened partway. He could feel the truth in the old man's words. "Fine...but why me?"

"Many reasons. Most I won't divulge, but the long and short of it is you exist in every dimension as a focal point. Your fate determines everything else in every universe." He held out a white ball of energy surrounded by blue chakra like flames. "It will drain your chakra quickly at first, however as it's used, you'll learn to wield it properly."

"Alright... what do I do?" The old man grabbed Naruto's right wrist and closed his eyes, then pain blasted through Naruto's veins, like molten glass being poured into his blood stream. A small white sun marking appeared on Naruto's wrist and he felt something swell inside him.

"I just gave you half of my power. Don't misuse it, boy..." Then everything went black…


	5. Chapter 5

"Alright class, today we are discussing team placements" Iruka spoke to his students with an air of pride.

Naruto was wearing black gloves, to hide the strange looking white ring on his hand. He didn't know why but whatever it was felt restricted. Like a balloon swelling with air, hopefully when it popped it wouldn't vaporize his arm.

The idea wasn't exactly appealing...

"Sasuke Uchiha, Karah Namikaze, and Naruto Namikaze. You are now team five with Itachi Uchiha as your jonin Sensei." Naruto narrowed his eyes. No way that's a coincidence...

_last night, hokage office_

"Hokage-sama, may I ask you something?" Itachi Uchiha walked into Minato's office.

Minato nodded. He was filling out teams, trying to decide who should teach the next generation of ninja, more specifically his daughter who would grow to become the savior of the world. "Yes Itachi, how's things with your clan?"

"They're well, ever since you announced you wanted me to replace you as Hokage in a few years the tension in my clan has gone down considerably. I came for a specific purpose though." Moms to regarded the teen in front of him. He was always calm and collected, calculating. An elite shinobi from the early ages and a prodigy like himself.

Itachi had Minato's respect.

"Permission to speak freely, Itachi." The blonde Kage granted.

Itachi sank to his knees and bowed at Minato. "I request to have my students be Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Namikaze. I don't care who the third is but I want those two."

Minato stared wide eyed. (Rightfully so, Itachi doesn't beg for shit.)

Then it clicked. "You've been teaching them. You helped Naruto become stronger in my absence. If I refuse your request?"

"Then I will decline your request for me to be a jonin instructor. You've seen what I can do on a battlefield, if I can pass on even a fraction of my skill they'll be jonin by fifteen or sixteen." Itachi could see Minato working things out in his head.

Itachi had less time, with a shinobi who lacks the power of the Kyuubi, yet from what Jiraiya told me Naruto is leaps and bounds past Karah...

"I'll grant your request on one condition. I want Karah to be your third pupil."

And you know what happened next;)

Naruto stood angrily. It's been over an hour since the last team got picked up. "Sasuke, let's train a bit."

Sasuke shrugged, standing up. "How? We aren't allowed to tear the room apart."

"With rules, duh. No touching the floor, no jutsu, be weapons, no chakra enhanced attacks." Naruto flipped up to the ceiling, applying chakra to stick with his feet. Sasuke followed quickly.

Karah watched, calculating the way her brother moved like a well versed shinobi...like her dad.

Naruto and Sasuke engaged in high-speed punches, kicks, blocks, and evasions that left them as little more than blurs to Karah. Sasuke was getting more hits in but Naruto did more damage per hit. Where Sasuke flowed through his movements like water or even erratic lightning, Naruto pressed forward like a roaring flame.

Suddenly Sasuke dropped low, spinning and throwing his leg out at Naruto. The blow caught Naruto's ankle and made him fall.

Before he could hit his head on the ground he flipped and landed on his uninjured ankle. "Dammit that hurt, Sasuke!"

"Sorry, how bad is it?" Sasuke dropped down beside him.

Naruto tentatively took off his ninja sandal, it felt like fire under his ankle and it was extremely difficult to move it or put weight on it. "Sprained, feels like a bad sprain."

"Perhaps next time you'll avoid such an obvious maneuver." Itachi was next to them, reaching forward with a green glow coming from his hand.

"Itachi-sensei! Where have you been?" Naruto asked.

"I wanted one more A rank mission before the inevitable D, C, and B ranks. I didn't have enough time to take on an S rank." Itachi placed his hand over the bruised part of Naruto's ankle, healing it in seconds. "Alright, might as well do this here. We need to get to know each other, because while I know you two quite well, I only know Karah by abilities and name. I'll start. My name is Itachi Uchiha, I like long walks and reading. I dislike many things I think are morally wrong. I enjoy candy, with Pokey being my favorite. Finally, my dream is to turn the three of you into excellent ninja, marry my fiance and raise our future children to be good people."

"Sasuke Uchiha. I like training and my big brother, _sometimes_ I even like Naruto-" "Fuck you, Sasgay!" "- and I dislike anything sweet. My dream is to be an excellent shinobi."

Naruto and Karah glared at each other, until Karah sighed. "I'm Karah Namikaze. I like my father and grandpa Jiraiya, even if he's a perv, and training to be the strongest. I dislike a certain ancient furry ass hole. My dream is to be Hokage like my dad." Karah ignored the growling in her mind.

Little brat, I can't wait to take over your body and eat your sorry excuse of a father!

Whatever, my Dad kicked your ass once, he can do it again, Fleabag.

Naruto is stronger than you, your just a sad excuse of a ninja.

"Naruto... I like ramen, and Itachi. I don't care to much for duckbutt. My dream is to... actually I don't have one... fuck it if we can say anything, I want a harem with like eight beautiful girls." Naruto smirked at his joke. "Maybe be famous enough to have half ass fanfics written about me."


	6. Chapter 6

"Alright guys, I'm gonna teach you all new hits I think will suit your style. Sasuke, for you I got the instructions for chidori from Kakashi, Naruto I'm giving you an original jutsu called Kaze no Yari the wind spear. Fire style Phoenix flower jutsu. This is close range for Sasuke, close to medium range for Naruto, and long range for Karah."

Naruto caught his scroll as Itachi tossed it to him, same with his teammates. "I want you to practice hard, I'll need a sparring partner eventually." Itachi then turned and pulled his tanto from its sheath. "I'm going to practice my kenjutsu alone. Shadow clone jutsu!" Ten clones of Itachi appeared and he walked a few dozen yards away.

Itachi, being the trained bad ass he was, was able to fight with relatively no noise other than when the tantos of he and his clones collided. His face remained calm as he deflected, blocked, or evaded each attack.

Naruto began working on his jutsu the way Itachi had always taught him. By reading the directions and talking with Sasuke, bouncing ideas off of each other.

"Kaze no Yari. Wind Spear. Stage 1: Done by generating a sharp blade of wind around the hand, acting like a spear tip. Stage 2: create an entire spear of compressed wind chakra to be thrown. Stage 2 has the added advantage of range and piercing power, though lacks the slicing ability of the Stage 1. Warning If done incorrectly the user could harm themselves. Sasuke, what's yours say?" Sasuke grunted, showing Naruto the scroll. "Meet me alone at training ground four for instruction. Hatake."

Sasuke stood and began walking in the direction of the training ground.

Karah was hard at work devoting the handsigns for her jutsu to muscle memory.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, his didn't have handsigns, it was pure elemental chakra manipulation, meaning it'd be more difficult. He sat down with his legs crossed and began trying to shape the wind chakra around his right hand. He will be first to do this jutsu!

Naruto breathed out heavily. All day and he barely could cut anything. He could push wind chakra out but it didn't do much. The few wind jutsu he knew weren't cutting type, they were meant for blunt force trauma or knockdown effect. This was much more difficult, relying less on power and more on control. Then it happened. He pushed the chakra though the chakra points of his hand, making the edges thinner and sharper. When he considered it to be right or close enough he swung his arm at a training dummy.

As soon as the wind blade came into contact with the wood, it cut through like it were made of paper and his hand had a katana. He almost fell over from the lack of resistance from the wood, but righted himself before he fell. "Well that's cool... I'll master this and move to stage two."

_Akatsuki base_

"I'm impressed. You managed to defeat Kisame, Deidera, and Sasori all at once. Who are you?" Pain, the shadow leader of the Akatsuki asked. He surrounded the enemy before him with his six paths of pain. All had orange hair, black robes with red clouds, and rinnegan eyes.

The man in front of him was tall, extremely lean with muscle. He had blonde hair that was shaved low. His left eye was white, with a scar over his eyebrow that left that eye completely blind from the look of it. His right eye was strange. The cornea was pitch black, the iris a glowing teal, and the pupil was a slightly lighter color. He wore a mask that covered his face from his nose downward like Kakashi Hatake. He wore a skin right metallic armor without sleeves that fit around his muscles but didn't restrict his movements. He wore a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal knuckles and his pants were baggy and tucked into shin height black boots with red bottoms on them.

In his right hand was a barely breathing Kisame he was holding up with one arm. He looked like he hadn't broken a sweat against the tailless tailed beast known as Kisame. Kisame was bleeding from a gash on his abdomen that had cut nearly all the way through. His right arm was gone and his face was bruised and swollen beyond recognition. Samehada actually squirmed away from the blonde, frightened by his awesome power.

"I needed to stretch my legs. Not my fault your S-class criminals were so weak." The man dropped Kisame roughly, like he was beneath him...in all honesty, he was.

"You killed three of my men, why should I let you live?" Pain asked, glaring at the stranger.

The man regarded the other five pains. "You all have the rinnegan, the supposed ultimate doujutsu. Would you care to see true power?"

As soon as the words left his mouth he flickered forward, standing in front of the gravity pain. The bodies of the now decimated paths of pain lay in heaps of limbs and body parts.

"I've got a proposition for you and your master, Obito."


	7. Chapter 7

Weeks had gone by with Team Itachi progressively getting stronger and complaining about D-rank missions until...

"Dammit Dad!" Karah yelled angrily at her father. Itachi had just led them on the infamous Tora mission, and the younger members of the team caught some scratches from the cat before it ran to Itachi. "How are we supposed to prove we are awesome ninja if you won't let us go on harder missions?"

Minato looked her in the eye for a moment before turning to Itachi. "Are they ready for a C-rank?"

Itachi nodded. "Honestly they could probably take on a B-rank. Naruto and Sasuke have the skill and power of an upper B-class shinobi, Karah has improved in leaps and bounds so she isn't far behind. If you've got a C- rank mission we'll take it."

Karah pumped her fist up and hugged Sasuke excitedly. "We got a better mission, Duckbutt-chan!"

Sasuke shoved her off. "The hell off me, Namikaze!"

Naruto meanwhile just felt like something bad was about to happen, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Your mission is an escort mission. You will go to Rice country and then escort a man with a very old and endangered bloodline, known as Swift release, back here to be part of our village. Normally I'd send a team of experienced chunin under an Anbu captain, but Itachi says you can handle yourselves and he is SS-class. The client's name is Raijin. He was an orphan who fled the village hidden in the bloody mist during their bloodline purge. He is roughly genin level but his speed let's him take on jonin easily. You're going to increase numbers and decrease the likelihood of an attack."

Itachi knew what that meant. He wanted the team to get their first kills. "Alright team, meet me at the south gate with a weeks worth of supplies in an hour." Naruto, Sasuke and Karah all nodded and left the office.

"Hokage-sama. Raijin... is he?"

"Yes, he's the last of his bloodline. I'm aware of the fighting that the swift release clan had with the Uchiha clan, but you can't argue that its not an excellent opportunity to gain a powerful ally." Minato stood and gave Itachi a three pronged kunai. "This way I can get to you in an instant."

Itachi put the kunai in his holster and nodded, then he vanished using his best friend's smokeless shunshin.

Several hours later after traveling at high speeds through the trees.

"Alright team. Stop here for tonight. Karah, set up the sleeping bags. Sasuke, secure the perimeter. Naruto, get firewood. I'll keep watch, since I'm the ranking shinobi." Itachi told his team.

Karah began setting the bags while Naruto and Sasuke took off into the woods with their own tasks.

Itachi sighed. I need to get them to open up to her more. Sasuke at least doesn't show hostility towards her... I'll work on that this week.

"Naruto. Can I show you something?" Sasuke asked as they left earshot.

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. We're friends after all. What's up?"

Sasuke lifted the part of his sleeve that covered the back of his right hand, showing off a white marking just like Naruto's. "Some old man gave me this, he said I'd need it for what like ahead and that it would allow me to do incredible things."

Naruto took off his right glove, showing off his own marking. "I got one too. Not sure what it does other than feel uncomfortable though."

Now there had to be something wrong. A cryptic old man giving them both a weird marking that supposedly made them stronger but not telling them how to use it. Plus Naruto couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was gonna happen.

"Well... I'm not sure what else it can do, but I think i accidentally used it the other day during training." Sasuke told him.

_Flashback_

Sasuke began pouring chakra into his right palm, easily creating his chidori. Kakashi had drilled the technique into his head and now he could do it without handsigns. The blue arcs of electricity danced in his palm as Kakashi created his own chidori. "Best way to test the Chidori, is clash with a similar jutsu. Ready?"

Sasuke nodded and broke out into a sprint towards Kakashi. Kakashi waited for a moment and charged also, matching Sasuke's speed.

When Sasuke reared back his right hand pulsed with power and his chidori became purple and when the chidoris slammed into each other, Kakashi's chidori was blown apart and Kakashi was forced to open the first gate to dodge the lightning blade.

"I think his chakra absorbed into mine or something because he said that if felt like his grew weaker and mine shifted nature to be a strange looking lightning I haven't even been able to replicate." Sasuke fixed his sleeve as Naruto bent over and began picking up firewood.

"Well now I've got more questions and no more answers..." Naruto grumbled, upset Sasuke had managed to use his power first.

"These are the 'Elite Shinobi' that my money got me? Most of you are kids!" Raijin was tall and lean with thin worry muscle. He had silvery hair that was blown backwards away from his face, bright gray eyes, and pale skin. He wore leather armor over his legs and arms but a regular white button up shirt over his chest. The pants beneath the armored legs were gray and he wore black boots. Strapped to his belt was a typical katana with a red belt.

"What's with the armor on your arms and legs?" Karah asked, completely ignoring his earlier statement.

The man looked at her like she was something he just stepped in. "Because when I move at top speed normal clothes can't take it. They tear too easily." Then he turned his gaze to Itachi. "You at least look competent."

Naruto leaned close to Sasuke and whispered. "This guy is an ass..."

Sasuke nodded. "Itachi-nii is his bloodline actually that strong?"

"Yes. They're speed makes it impossible to predict and react to their next moves even with the sharingan. Only an extremely fast ninja, such as myself or Hokage-sama would be able to fight a jonin gifted with the swift release." Itachi stepped forward. "I am Itachi Uchiha, Crow of Konoha. I am here with my students, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Namikaze, and Karah Namikaze, to escort you back to the hidden leaf. Are you ready to go?"

Raijin shrugged. "Whatever. Just don't get me killed by Purge enthusiasts. Those guys are a persistent bunch."

"Alright. On the way back to the hidden leaf we are going to be going at a slower pace to accommodate you, Raijin." Itachi said, getting weird looks from his team.

"Wait isn't he supposed to be this super fast ninja?" Karah asked, getting a nod from Itachi.

Raijin spoke up. "Actually kid you're right. I'm faster than the speed of sound, but it costs a portion of my chakra and if I do it for more than a second or two at a time I can tear my muscles apart. It's possible to build a slight resistance but I haven't yet. For now I can cover forty or fifty yards in the blink of an eye, but I'll be training my strength to do that. Most of my brethren used it in bursts to finish fights before they realized that." Raijin palmed the hilt of his sword. "That's why we normally carry something sharp to fight with."

Naruto clenched a fist, he could feel something coming. He trained his eyes around the area near them until he saw it. A man with really short blonde hair and a mask like Kakashi's. He didn't wear a headband, but one of his eyes gave off an eerie glow. The man wavedslowly, and when Naruto blinked he was gone. "Sensei, I think we should go."

Itachi nodded, catching the look on Naruto's face. "Alright. Let's move out." Silently as they walked Itachi activated his sharingan and caught Naruto's gaze. That was all it took for Itachi to bring Naruto into his genjutsu world.

Suddenly he and Naruto stood across from one another in a dark room with a red light. "Naruto, something's bugging you, I can see it."

Naruto nodded. "Someone's watching us. I can't quite put it into words... I don't sense his chakra like I normally would with an enemy, it's more like my own chakra shakes."

Itachi remained motionless. "I trust you. I know you wouldn't make something like this up. Let me see what he looks like."

The blonde man from before appeared between them. Fine details were blurry but Naruto had only seen him at a distance.

"His appearance doesn't match anyone in the bingo book... that eye... it looks strangely familiar." Itachi eyes widened. "He's got a tenseigan eye!"

"Tenseigan?" Naruto asked. "Is it like the sharingan?"

"No... no it's not. What I'm about to tell you is an S-class secret with the Uchiha clan. Our sharingan evolves when we undergo stress, loss, anger, or sadness. That is something taught in the academy. What you don't know is there are ways to improve the sharingan even further. The loss of the one closest to you is the only sure way to awaken the mangekyo sharingan, after that a mangekyo user can implant the eyes of another similar set, from a sibling or sometimes a parent to unlock the eternal mangekyo sharingan. According to Father, once you have the eternal mangekyo, you have the capability of unlocking the Rinnegan, the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths. These eyes grant dominion over all elements, gravity, matter, life and death, and that's added to the powers from the sharingan and Eternal mangekyo. The Sage had near limitless power with those eyes, and he had a brother of a similar power level. He didn't have rinnegan though, he had Tenseigan. Less is known about his abilities but he was his brothers equal because of his eyes... If I'm right we need to deal with this appropriately..."

"Alright, why follow us though? To someone with power that old what would messing with us matter?" Naruto asked, trying to think straight. "Wait, he's only got one-"

"Irrelevant. Kakashi Hatake is stronger than most Uchiha with only one matured sharingan at his disposal." Itachi sighed. "In the real world eight seconds have gone by. We should get back before ten."

"Alright. What will we do if the guy attacks?"

Itachi gave him a sideways glance. "We'll do the best we can. Prepare for the worst. I'll talk to Sasuke and Karah the same way we are now."

 **AN: This is not completely true, you can't go further and get rinnegan, but who cares! Its my fic!**


	8. Chapter 8

Itachi's eyes snapped open, he felt dozens of genin to chunin level chakra signatures and a few jonin as well. It was the middle of the night and he'd been sleeping, Sasuke was supposed to have been keeping watch but his senses weren't as sharp as his or even Naruto's.

Itachi leapt up to his feet, glaring his sharingan and yelling. "Ambush!" Sasuke, Naruto and Karah sprang to their feet. Sasuke and Karah went back to back while Naruto got behind Itachi so no one could take Itachi from behind.

"Sensei, where's Raijin?" Karah asked. Other than their fire it was completely dark so Naruto and Karah were having trouble seeing.

Itachi and Sasuke could at least see chakra with their sharingan.

Indeed Raijin was gone, nowhere to be seen.

Naruto's and Sasuke's marks gave off a weird glow. Pale blue for Naruto, gray for Sasuke.

Their powers were close to activating, but it might end up being too late.

The sound of a gust of wind appeared next to them, revealing Raijin. He had his sword out and looked winded. "Can't even shit in peace without some Iwa ninja jumping out and demanding to have the children of the Yondaime."

Itachi's eyes widened. This was worse than he'd feared. Given time he could kill all of the ninja surrounding them, but that would leave his students and client open to attack.

"We need to be able to see to fight!" Karah whispered to Itachi frantically.

Itachi nodded. Then began going through handsigns. "Fire style: Grand Fireball!" He spit out a blast of fire that encompassed the forest in front of him, likely killing a few of the slower ninja as well.

Then it was on.

Naruto brought his arms up, blocking a heavy kick that sent him stumbling in front of Itachi, Naruto s attacker was blinded by a lightning fast flash of steel and he was dead before his head hit the ground. Raijin helped Naruto up as Itachi was forced to fight a trio of Jonin. "Look alive, Kid. I really don't feel like dying today."

Naruto nodded. Suddenly he could see! The area around him was a mixture of grays and whites but each person had a blue glow and he could even see the ones behind trees. It wasn't byakugan because he couldn't see in 360 degrees or chakra points but he had no trouble seeing in the dark. "I can see..."

Sasuke looked at him for a moment, shocked. "Dude, your eyes are glowing a bit. And your pupil is white... and people say the sharingan looks weird..."

Naruto shrugged, drawing a pair of shuriken. Then he hurled them into the darkness. After thirty feet the shuriken collided and allowed one to turn at a ninety-degree angle and stab into a ninjas cheek, knocking him down and taking him out of the fight.

"Get 'em, boys!" Ninja charged from all directions and suddenly Naruto could feel the incoming danger. His body sped up while the world around him slowed. He was seeing things at a third of their normal speed and fighting for his life.

One ninja threw a kunai and Naruto spun, catching it by the handle and stabbing a ninja behind him in the throat, then leaped up and kicked the ninja in the chest hard enough to send him sprawling.

Karah was using a pair of Rasengan in her hands and delivering powerful blows that sent enemies rocketing into the foliage.

Sasuke, like Naruto, was using taijutsu. However where Naruto's style became more and more brutal, his own became graceful. He moved with fluidity that seemed unnatural, weaving through ninja and taking them down using a pair of kunai.

Naruto leapt over a man, flipping as he did so and flipped through handsigns. Then a foot long blade of wind surrounded his hand and he became a veritable flurry of bloody limbs, his glowing eyes giving him a prenatural look.

A lone rock ninja stood back, watching with a look of anger. "Fine brat, let's see you deal with this!" He flipped through a dozen handseals and breathed in. "Particle style: Eraser Canon!" A ball of bright white energy appeared in his hand. It was the size of a beach ball and gave off a look of almost divine power.

The ball blasted forward at Naruto, faster than anyone could react.

Naruto saw it coming, he couldn't dodge, he couldn't block, he couldn't even deflect it. He was about to die.

The white explosion shook the earth and stopped most of the fighting. Tears fell down Sasuke's face, his best friend was gone. Itachi bit the inside of his cheek, he didn't show it, but this pain was far greater than even he could ignore. He'd come to look at Naruto as a brother or even a son, and now... blood leaked from Itachi's eyes as his sharingan flipped to mangekyo form.

Karah fell to her knees. She could never say it aloud, but she admired Naruto. He was her big brother. Memories of how her dad refused to let her and Naomi play with him, memories of calling him names, of belittling her big brother...they all surfaced at once, bringing tears to her eyes. A lump formed in her throat as she realized she would never get to say she was so-

A black metallic looking orb lies in the crater the jutsu had made. It was over six foot tall and was a perfect sphere.

Then it morphed into a much smaller set of three orbs the size of fists. They floated behind a very angry looking Naruto.

Sasuke reacted instantly, charging the ninja who had fired the white jutsu and putting a lightning covered fist through his chest. "One thousand birds!" With a yank he forced his still covered lightning fist upward, vaporizing the ninja's torso, neck, and head.

Naruto was about to jump back into the fight when the enemy ninjas began fleeing from Itachi, who had awakened his Susanoo and was surrounded by a giant red ethereal skeleton.

The Susanoo faded and Itachi sighed in relief when he saw Naruto mostly unharmed.

Karah was still looking at him in shock. He's... stronger than me... just like Sasuke, Itachi, and Dad...

She resolved right then that she would get stronger and start being nicer to Naruto. Maybe one day he would forgive her. Maybe one day..


End file.
